


Mischief of Tomorrow

by chronicAngel



Series: Leaves in the Summer [15]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, M/M, New Year's Eve, New Year's Fluff, New Year's Resolutions, New Years, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 05:06:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13228674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chronicAngel/pseuds/chronicAngel
Summary: They've done it practically since they were born.





	Mischief of Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> One of my resolutions last year was to write something, no matter how small, every day. One of my resolutions this year is to write something and _post_ something, no matter how small, every day. So, here's the first of what will hopefully be many. Happy New Year guys!

They've done it practically since they were born.

Ino clings to her father's hand as they walk toward the Nara compound, navigating through the thick trees between the common spots in the village and the Nara head's house. She is sure that, like every year before, Chōji and his family will have gotten there first, with Uncle Chōza red-faced and drunk and Auntie Daiko trying to keep up with one of Shikamaru's ramblings. He's probably already smarter at the age of seven than most of the adults without the alcohol factored in. The added handicap is something she's sure he's grown tired of, and she will be happy to drag him away from everyone else once they get there to make him play another game of shōgi with her.

It will be her twelfth, not counting the three she played with Chōji a few weeks ago because he wanted to learn, too. She doesn't count them because he'd supposedly never played before, and so she was going easy on him and he won. She learned days later that he'd played with Shikamaru multiple times, and just wanted to see how good she must have been at the game to beat the legendary Nara Shikamaru. Shikaku still had too much pride to let a seven-year-old beat him.

Pride, or perhaps common sense. The only way any of them are going to get any better is by playing against someone who's better than them and learning how to beat them, after all. It's just like training.  


She scrambles in front of her father once the building is clearly visible, knocking her fist emphatically on the wooden sills of the shōji and grinning politely at the paper while she waits for someone to answer. It takes almost half a minute, but eventually, Chōji's short, thick frame fills the doorway.

"Hi, Chō!" She puts on her brightest grin, closing her eyes and tilting her head until she feels light blonde hairs brush against her chin. She thinks he and Shikamaru are two of the only people in the world who recognize that this smile is faked, even if she's too young to understand why she has to put it on, but as usual he says nothing and simply moves to the side as her father catches up to let the both of them in.  


The inside of the Nara house is as quiet as all of her memories, which is to say, not very quiet at all. The building is filled with noise and life, even though the only people there are their three families.

"Inoichi!" She hears Chōza's voice boom from one of the corners, where he's exchanging pleasantries with Nara Yoshino and drinking something red that she can't identify. She doesn't particularly want to, either.

"The board is already set up."

Shikamaru sounds more bored than usual; as though the whole world is supposed to be entertaining him and is just falling flat, and he's tired of pretending that he's amused. His shoulders are slouched and his hands are stuffed in his pockets like a usual interaction with him goes, but there's something distinctly off about him that she can't place, but doesn't want to ask about. It feels strangely personal. Shaking her head as though trying to physically dismiss the atmosphere, she grabs his hand and lets him lead her to the porch in the back, the wood feeling particularly cold under her heels due to the January weather. He wears house slippers, but she is barefoot, and is only protected from the chill outside by shōji that are cracked open just a bit. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see it's started snowing.

She thinks this might be where they belong, despite the cold air. The shōgi board sits between the two of them, pieces still in formation from his last game with Chōji, and as usual she can see that he beat the other boy. There's light tapping noises as he starts to rearrange them, and she watches rather than helps him because she's tired of his complaints that he can do it much faster without her and she's only getting in the way. About halfway through their game, Chōji finds them, but he sits quietly and patiently at the side of the board, watching, rather than interjecting like he might if they were playing something else. Their play styles are totally different. Ino is reckless, relying on her luck and only looking a move or two ahead, placing pieces and relying on her knowledge of her opponent to get her through to the end. Her turns can take only seconds. Shikamaru is calculating, mapping out dozens of moves in his head before he touches a single piece, and he relies instead on his knowledge of the game. His turns can take minutes if he's focusing hard enough.

She doesn't win, in the end. She's only beaten him once, so she isn't exactly surprised, but at the same time she knows this is more than many people can say when it comes to playing with a Nara, especially Shikamaru or his father. He offers her his hand to shake and she beams as she grabs it. She's always been a sore loser, and a sore winner at that, but it's difficult to hold her annoyance with losing over his head with Chōji sitting there watching her. That's what she tells herself.

"Let's play a game!" She choruses, grinning at the two of them.

"We just played a game," Shikamaru remarks flatly, at the same time that Chōji says, "What game?" She chooses to ignore Shikamaru's statement. They did finish playing a game of shōgi just a moment ago, but they didn't get to play with Chōji, and besides that, she wants to play a different game now. She thinks it's almost funny how Shikamaru can play a single game of shōgi for an hour or two, but the minute someone recommends another game, it's like he's been thrown out of his element and doesn't know what to do. Chōji, on the other hand, is more adventurous and generally childlike.

She straightens proudly. "There are some things that Dad and you guys' parents do every year, like sugoroku and toshikoshi soba. Well, we aren't supposed to eat the toshikoshi for another hour, and I dunno how to play sugoroku, but Dad _always_ makes a revolution--"

"A resolution." Shikamaru corrects her, looking amused. "A revolution would be... different."

"Yes, okay, _fine,_ " she concedes, before rushing on. "Dad always makes a resolution. After we go home, he'll sit at mom's shrine and talk for a while and make promises to change stuff." She doesn't know whether it's a promise to himself, or a promise to her. She doesn't know how sad that difference is.

The boys both look confused. "You want us to make promises to change stuff?" Chōji eventually asks, with a tone like he thinks she's crazy. She nods rather than pouting about it. "How is that fun at all?"

She huffs, now, and crosses her arms. "I thought it sounded fun!" She taps her chin, trying to think. It isn't long before she has another idea, straightening and grinning at the two of them again. "We can make revolutions for each other!" Shikamaru doesn't even bother to correct her this time as she looks at him and crinkles her nose. "I can certainly think of some things I'd like to change about you."

"Like the fact that I won't listen to you all the time 'cause you're so bossy?" She scoffs and scoots away from him as he shrugs in agreement. "I guess that could be fun. It'll be way more fun watching you slip up and try to catch yourself all year, Ino." They stick their tongues out at each other, but it's mostly playful. For the next hour, they all make resolutions, until Shikamaru and Chōji's mothers are calling them to come eat. Shikamaru promises to make faster moves at shōgi if Ino promises to get better at the game. Chōji says he'll play more, too, and asks Ino to start bringing Hanafuda decks to the family events so they aren't just limited to whatever Shikamaru happens to have, as they all know that she has multiple. Shikamaru and Ino both promise to stop treating Chōji like a tag-along or a third wheel, which Ino knows she will struggle with more than Shikamaru will. In the end, Chōji has the least things to change, and the whole thing feels weirdly enlightening for a group of seven-year-olds.

It's almost one in the morning when they technically start up again. Chōji and Shikamaru are camped on the floor of Shikamaru's room, as they have always done at sleepovers, while Ino lays on her stomach in his bed. Chōji is fast asleep, hand halfway sleeved in a bag of chips, but she thinks that Shikamaru still must be awake or else has learned to sleep with his eyes open as he lays still and stares at the ceiling. She pipes up in a whisper, "We should start being nicer to each other," as though this is prefaced by anything, the obvious thing to interject with.

"You're the only one who's mean," Shikamaru replies immediately. He sounds the same, like they've been talking about this for a while and this simply the direction their regular conversation has taken. As though they haven't been laying in silence for almost an hour trying to go to bed.  


"Nuh-uh!" She says indignantly, leaning over the side of the bed to squint at him through the dark.

He's quiet for a long minute.

"Fine," he eventually huffs, and then rolls over.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I feel like I might get in trouble for this one so I wanna explain. In Japan, the official New Year has been marked down as January 1st since 1873, which is actually about thirty years after the time period that I usually write my Naruto fics around. The thing about that is that I wanted to write a New Years fic and I didn't have any inspiration for something with DC, and I am a double-fandom writer at this point sooo, here we are.
> 
> P.S. Does this even belong in the ShikaIno tag? Welp, here it is anyway.


End file.
